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Peer Reviewed

Peer-Reviewed

Abstract

This review of the evidence for early agriculture in New Guinea supported by new data from Kuk Swamp demonstrates that cultivation had begun there by at least 6950-6440 cal BP and probably much earlier. Contrary to previous ideas, the first farming in New Guinea was not owed to South-East Asia, but emerged independently in the Highlands. Indeed plants such as the banana were probably first domesticated in New Guinea and later diffused into the Asian continent.